A good developer will add this option to their app: disable accelerometer. We've seen it in some Twitter apps and even our own WPCentral app has a "lock portrait view" option. Still, there are times when you want to do this globally because perhaps you can't sleep and want to use your phone while lying on your side in bed--hey, it's your world!

In that case, Windows Phone Hacker has provided a neat homebrew tool that disables the accelerometer on a global but temporary basis--great for those odd moments when you just don't want the phone rotating your apps.

That's the good news. The bad news is this is only for interop-unlocked Samsung and LG devices, meaning if you're on HTC or Nokia, you're left in the cold. Plus, you'll have to reboot your phone in order to gain back the accelerometer functionality, suggesting this isn't as elegant as we'd like it (but that's not the fault of WPH, who did what they could).

For those of you interested, you can grab the app here at Windows Phone Hacker to side load. Remember, only Gen 1 Samsung and LG devices can use this app. Finally, check our all the other homebrew Windows Phone apps here: wpcentral.com/tags/homebrewThanks, Carlos, for the tip!

Do you guys ever proof read? I absolutely love the site but it drives me crazy the silly mistakes that crop up daily. I would think simply proof reading would catch most of these errors. Again, I love the site, the app, the community, but the editing needs serious help.

I've seen far worse spelling and grammar on international news websites. The writing here is not perfect, but it's also not that bad. Reading the poorly written comments in just about every comment section or forum board on the interwebs hurts my head way more. XD

Damn, interop only.
How is this not a feature built in to the OS? Small things like this are so annoying. Such a simple feature to implement, too! I wish I could just turn off rotation entirely unless the app requests it, like how Android allows.

Wait a minute...This was baked into the OS at one time. When I had my LG Panther (OS 7.0.7003) I could lock the screen into portrait. When I had to move over to a Quantum to keep up with updates, I never looked into it. I'm disappointed that it's not there now.

It's precisely the lack of such basic features in WP, self-evidently included in other OS'es, that keeps WP from ever gaining major popularity. And the hard-headedness of MS to respond to basic customer needs. Sorry to say.